Arnold Schwarzenegger Runs 2010 Olympic Torch Rely Despite Past Steroid Use

Thousands of people turned out before sunrise in Vancouver for a chance to see California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger carry the Olympic torch along the Stanley Park seawall on the star-studded final day of the cross-Canada relay. Schwarzenegger began his leg with the flame at 7:03 a.m. PT just as the sun began to come up, surrounded by hundreds of screaming fans.

The California governor, who will be a torchbearer on Friday in the run-up to the Games’ opening ceremony, confessed in 2005 he had used steroids on his way to becoming a seven-time Mr. Olympia.

But John Furlong, the chief executive of Olympics organizing committee Vanoc, said the star will play a crucial role on Friday.

This falls under the eve of the 2010 Vancouver Games as anti-dopers from World Anti-Doping AgencyWADA have already caught more than 30 athletes using steroids, human growth hormone HGH or other performance enhancing drug.

David Howman, the agency’s director general, said none of the more than 30 athletes who failed pre-Games testing will be in Vancouver. WADA president John Fahey said at the pre-Olympic news conference, ” There will be cheaters .

The one thing I will declare is that it’s more likely they will be caught than in any other games in our history.” Any athlete who tries to cheat at the Vancouver Winter Games by taking banned substance is more likely to get caught than at any other Olympics in history, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency said Thursday. But Fahey said the number of disqualified athletes is ‘significant’ and shows the effectiveness of pre-Games testing.

The Vancouver organizing committee unveiled its secret weapon for doping-free Winter Games in February which is a 1,350-square-foot, $8.9-million state-of-the art anti-doping lab in the Richmond Olympic Oval.

More than 2,400 tests will be administered during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic games, more than in any other winter Olympics.

The stakes are high, and so is the security. There are multiple sets of secure, locked doors to get through, and once inside, you see something that looks like a CSI lab complete with beakers and mysterious machines.

The most serious issues regard the tradition steroids but more and more athletes have been turning to human growth hormone which has been linked to anti-aging effects as like increasing energy and endurance, improving sports performance and recovery and increases immune system function and reducing fat accumulation and builds lean muscle mass